Secret Files: TunguskaReview

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Point and click to save the world.

By Charles Onyett

The force of two thousand atomic bombs is, according this game's retail box, the power of an explosion that lit up the Siberian countryside in June of 1908. Such a massive blast serves as the catalyst for the events of Secret Files: Tunguska, a recently released adventure title from Fusionsphere Systems. You play primarily as Nina Kalenkov, a young woman whose father gets nabbed by an unknown party, sparking her search. She's joined by Max Gruber, one of her father's coworkers. Starting off in their hometown of Berlin, Nina and Max follow a twisting series of leads across the globe, visiting pubs in Ireland, asylums in Cuba, and the Himalayas, among other locales. Though the story and characters aren't the strongest around, the game manages to stay entertaining thanks to a convenient interface and some interesting puzzles.

As a third-person point and click adventure game, Tunguska still manages to shake off the dust that often settles on this genre's gameplay. First, it's got a button that shows all the spots that can be inspected or manipulated onscreen. This isn't really anything new, we've seen other games with glowing items or sparkles or whatever, but it's definitely appreciated. You'll accumulate quite a few items while moving through each area's generally static screens, many of which can be combined. While it's fun to see what items fit together, combining them can occasionally feel more like random chance than an exercise in logic. For instance, who would have thought a wrench should be combined with a hollow street sign? Even though some combinations don't make a lot of sense, they're still easily accomplished by clicking through every item in your inventory.

For the most part, Tunguska's puzzles keep from becoming unnecessarily confusing, though there's an occasional oddball. Weights on the phonograph come to mind as a little of the ordinary, and the method for acquiring a safe combination in Cuba is truly bizarre. By far the most interesting part is the tandem puzzle solving between Max and Nina. Unfortunately, this only happens during one sequence where Nina is trying to escape captivity. There's another instance where players can switch between Max and Nina as they explore two different areas, but they'll never be able to directly aid each other like in the escape.

It's too bad Tunguska's characters weren't better. Nina's most prominent characteristic (aside from her jeans) is that she misses her father. Max's major trait is that he likes Nina. Eventually a few characters are revealed to have additional layers of personality, but they're never very deep or intriguing. There are also a few logistical issues that keep it from being really believable. First, it's never really made clear how Nina or Max are making all these trips across the world, or how Nina is capable of some of the monumental athletic feats she's able to perform. During one of the game's more interesting puzzle sequences, Nina is able to clamber across the top of a speedy train. Is that a move every researcher's daughter can expect to pull off when required? We're going to guess not.

In addition to a few informational gaps that trivialize parts of the game, too many plot revelations are withheld until right near the end. This means that through most of the game you're fed morsels of plot and progress largely on assumptions. Normally this might increase a gamer's hunger to reach the end, since they want to find out more more. The problem is, even though you will want to know what's really going on, you'll have no idea of its scope or severity of the issue at hand until the game's practically over. We know there are a number of furtive interest groups whirling about and are given hints about what could occur, but the world never really seems to be in danger. Even after the game ends, we found ourselves unsatisfied with how much information was divulged, particularly regarding the most interesting faction of the game.